towerofanimus | these truths are not gated

Entry tags:

these truths are not gated

Characters: [OU] Alphonse Elric and YOU?
Setting: Room 1-08, and then exploring the tower. Just mention where you are in your subject or tag!
Format: I'll mimic you.
Summary: Al wakes up in the Tower, and wonders what the fudgsicle is going on.
Warnings: Copious amounts of puppy dog faces? welkrj idk, none on Al's end! Will edit if anything happens.

As soon as the sleep paralysis had worn off, Alphonse was sitting bolt upright in his bed with a start, breathing hard and fast--

...

Where...?

Disoriented, his eyes quickly seek out his surroundings, but... he doesn't recognize anything. Not a single thing, and when he turns his head, he finds something odd and vaguely tight around his neck. Fingers lift to investigate, and...

A choker? Some kind of collar or tubing? He's even more perplexed and bewildered, simply confused and at odds as he almost numbly finds his feet with caution. Had someone kidnapped him...? But he doesn't remember anything unusual before he had fallen asleep, and... aside from the addition to his anatomy, he doesn't appear to be injured.

When he tests it, he finds the door isn't locked, either. (He's completely missed that handy little note, hasn't he?)

Al is wary and on his guard, uneasy -- concerned as he carefully pokes his head out of the door and into the corridor. This is all so strange... what exactly is going on here? It looks like it might take a little exploration before he can find out...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

We?

[they're not alone, but he didn't see any familiar faces on the way and no one would really talk to him. most of them barely even looked his way.]

Yeah. There's no one else here that you'd recognize, but there's a lot of people here that are all in the same boat as us. It'll be a little easier to explain after you read the letter.

[so this wasn't a dream, and both of them are trapped here? he isn't sure this makes sense, but he's keeping his reservations to himself and trusting his brother. maybe it would come together when he read this note he's hearing so much about.

for now, all he does is nod on the way to the dormitories again. could a little letter really explain all this?]

[At lot of things don't make sense anymore. His head is still reeling as he continues down the stairs, trying to sort everything out, trying to let it sink in that Al was here, really here, and back in his own body. Al's trust is more than appreciated -- the quiet is helpful and his thoughts finally start coming together to form complete and coherent sentences. But now that his mind has started to settle, things that he would have noticed earlier under different circumstances started to demand his attention.

Things about Al. How he looked. The last time he went through the Gate to get out of Gluttony's broken portal he saw Al's body. It was thin, emaciated, and so brittle that Ed was worried his legs might break under him when he stood up. Al's body, the one with it's soul, the one walking just behind him looked nothing like that. He'd filled out, he looked healthy, Ed didn't have to be concerned about the wind sweeping him away.

No, Al looked nothing like what he saw beyond the Gate. How much time had passed? Putting on all that weight would have taken months. Building up the strength to walk and lift his arms, hell to do anything that wasn't laying down or sitting, would have taken just as long, if not longer.

The dorms were just ahead, but he couldn't wait until after Al read the letter. He had to know.]

Al... How old are you now?

[he's got that little frown of thought at his brow the further they go, but he's taken from whatever had been on his mind when the question comes from his brother.

so, Ed noticed too.

he looks a little awkward... um. why does he feel like he's about to get yelled at? it's not like he can help it...]

I just turned eighteen a little bit ago. Winry made the best cake, brother! It was really delicious.

[how old is Ed? it's hard to tell... sixteen, maybe seventeen? approaching eighteen at the oldest if he still hadn't got his arm and leg back...

you know what he's just not. going to ask. ahem.]

[eighteen. Al just turned eighteen. Ed turned seventeen only a couple of months ago and Al was eighteen. It had been two years. Two. Years. Part of him isn't surprised, it makes sense. Just looking at him was proof enough.

...

Still, that didn't mean he had to like it. Wasn't HE the older brother? This was not how things worked. The older brother should STAY the older brother. Ed stopped at the door to Al's room, covering his face with his hand.]

You're eighteen.

... [he sighed and shook his head. THIS. WAS. HORRIBLE. AWESOME ALCHEMY SKILLS? NOPE. HE DOESN'T NEED A CIRCLE EITHER. HEIGHT? HAHAHAHA OH THAT WAS FUNNY. OLDER BROTHER STATUS? GONE. It's stupid and petty and he really shouldn't make a big deal out of this, but... Ed will be Ed.]

Damn it that is NOT fair. What the... You are two years older than you should be, Al!

[ah, well... some things never change, do they? he can't help but chuckle at Ed's expression, resting a hand lightly on his shoulder in consolation. somehow, the fact that THIS is what he dwells on in these circumstances makes it a lot less unnerving.]

I guess that makes you two years younger than you're supposed to be, brother!

[and he. Just. Stares. LOOKING THE MOST OFFENDED EVER. YOU WOUND HIM, SIR.]

Is that supposed to make me feel BETTER?

[now he's laughing, unable to help it... before he's moving into the dormitory again and holding the door ajar for Ed to follow.]

At least I'm not much taller than you anymore, right? [he holds a hand up to his head. yes, a great deal shorter than he had been in the armor, huh... heh.]

[he twitches, frowning heavily as he grumbles and pushes past Al.]

Shut up. Just go read the stupid letter.

You don't need to be mean about it... [light mumble... but he's going to do as told, heading for the nightstand by the bed he had woken up in and sitting at the edge.

pluck -- up goes the first letter, a simple... note.]

[a simple...

...

there's a long pause, and his eyes tilt slowly up to Ed, holding it absently in his lap. there's clear question in his gaze; why would he want him to read this...?

it can't be true. it just... can't, so--]

[He's just grumpy, Al. Nothing personal. Remember this is your brother two years younger and two years less mature than the Ed you're used to.

He watches Al quietly while he reads, arms crossed over his chest.]

Yeah, I know.

[Ed plops down on the bed next to Al, pulling his feet up and sitting cross-legged at the edge.]

It's one thing to hear it from me, but I wanted you to read that so you know what we're dealing with here. The other people here, the ones who aren't those drones? They're not from our world. No one that I've talked to knows about Amestris. Or Xing, Drachma, and Creta for that matter.

Some are from the same world. A lot are from Earth, but they lived in countries I'd never heard of. Everyone who wakes up here gets those letters. They all say the same thing.

Personally, I think it's bullshit. So do most of the others here. Whoever brought us here... it's not because they wanted to help us or save us. It wasn't so we could keep on living and "be happy". They're lying, hiding something.

[some sort of mass kidnapping that spanned... worlds? maybe the idea was ridiculous, but after all they had experienced...

well. it wasn't as ridiculous as it should be.

he looks at the note again, reading it over and over... such simple words with such a heavy implication. but it obviously wasn't true... it couldn't be. he was certain of that.]

How are we from different times, brother? We're from the same world, so how could you be from my past and I'm from your future?

Exactly.

But that's not the only thing weird about all of this. There are doubles of some people here. Literally, the same person, but from an alternate version of that same world.

For all I know, that could be what's going on with us, but I have a feeling that's not the case here.

Edited 2011-10-17 06:51 (UTC)

[Al mulls this over thoughtfully, before giving a decisive nod of agreement.]

I would know if you weren't... you, Ed.

[he knows Ed will understand.]

[Ed nods. Yeah, he definitely gets it.]

Right. Which just raises the question of how our entire world could be destroyed. If the world was destroyed when I was taken, you might still be here, but you would be sixteen. If it was destroyed after I was taken then the events that happened in your past couldn't have happened. I wouldn't have been there, so I couldn't have been the one who got your body back and after you woke me up, you would've been asking me where the hell I ran off to for two years.

It just doesn't make sense.

[nodding again. he agrees with all of his big (little?) brother's deductions.]

It doesn't make sense for sure...

[--wait! he tilts his head curiously at him again.]

How long have you been here, brother?

[He chews on his lip, brow furrowing as he thinks]

A little over two months. It's easy to lose track of time after awhile.

Two months?

[a long while... he definitely would have noticed if Ed were missing at all, nevermind for such a long period of time.]

Do you think if whoever took us can do something like bend time as well as space? If they're able to pull people from different worlds, then something like that doesn't sound as far-fetched...

[...okay, it still sounded far-fetched, but he's sitting here with his brother two years younger than he was an hour ago in some strange tower, collared.]

Yeah, give or take.

[He leans forward, tapping the side of his face as he tosses that around in his head]

I wouldn't rule it out. There's actually someone I met here who goes by the Doctor. No idea what his real name is, apparently I wouldn't be able to pronounce it or something like that. But he's a Time Lord. He's actually able to travel anywhere he wants to in all of space and time. Sounds like a load of crap, but after everything we've seen and from what I've learned after being stuck here for two months, it's easier to believe.

I'll have to ask him about that later. He might be able to explain it.

Edited 2011-10-17 07:33 (UTC)

A Time Lord...

[ahhh, now he's all curious! this sounds amazing as much as it sounds crazy, and that hunger to figure out the mystery is genetic. he's sure Ed feels it too. he leans forward a bit, turning the note over before setting it on the nightstand.]

So there are other people trapped here like us, some from different worlds... and some of them have doppelgangers.

[this is very strange. very. ...strange.]

Has anyone taken responsibility for all this?

[See that grin? It is the classic Elric "THIS IS FASCINATING AND I NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT EVERYTHING SO I'M GOING TO AWW YEAH" grin. This tower one big mystery to solve, it was a challenge and Ed never backs down from a challenge. People were getting hurt here -- they were being manipulated and used and lied to and experimented on -- if anything that made his desire to figure this place out even stronger.

Yeah. Definitely genetic.]

Not yet. All we know about our "savior" is in that note.

Edited 2011-10-17 07:53 (UTC)

Not much of a savior, are they...

[he rubs the back of his head with a quiet chuckle. he definitely recognizes that smile.]

Well, whatever the reason we're here... I'm glad we're together again.

[he doesn't like the thought of Ed here all on his lonesome; it just wasn't the way things should be... especially if this place has the potential to be dangerous.]

Definitely not.

[A softer smile replaces the grin -- happy, appreciative, maybe even, at least for now, a little content.]

Me too, Al.

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lol tagging from my phone

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